The present invention relates generally to aeronautical vehicle systems, and more particularly, to a system for mating an aircraft with a strake to a servicing bridge.
Passenger loading bridges are utilized to provide ingress and egress of passengers between an airline terminal and an aircraft. A typical passenger loading bridge includes a bridgehead for mating to a passenger-loading door. The bridgehead typically has a rubber bumper along a bridgehead opening that dampens contact between the bridgehead and an aircraft fuselage just below a doorsill.
Current passenger loading bridge designs are not suitable for aircraft that have a strake. Various aircraft wing designs currently exist in aircraft industry. These aircraft have wings that are sufficiently positioned away from the passenger-loading door and do not interfere with the bridge mating to the aircraft. Unfortunately, the existing bridgehead design interferes with an aircraft design that has a strake extending to the passenger door.
A strake refers to a wing leading edge near a wing root attachment to the fuselage that extends forward to a passenger loading door area. A portion of the wing or strake may be located several inches below a sill of the passenger door and interferes with positioning of the loading bridge.
The interference of the bridgehead with the strake causes difficulty during mating of the bridgehead with the fuselage. The interference can result in damage to the strake or the fuselage, which is costly and therefore undesirable. Also, when interference exists between the strake and the bridgehead a significant gap typically exists between the fuselage and the bridgehead, rendering the current passenger bridge impractical for passenger use.
It is therefore, desirable to provide a passenger bridge that is able to mate to an aircraft having a strake without interference between the bridgehead and the strake while maintaining practical ingress and egress of passengers between the aircraft and the airline terminal.
The present invention provides a system for mating an aircraft with a strake to a servicing bridge. A servicing bridge for servicing a vehicle is provided including a main bridge section that is mechanically coupled to a terminal and a bridgehead. A retractable bridge extension system is mechanically coupled to the bridgehead. The extension system includes a bridge extension that mates a bridge floor to a vehicle floor and extends the servicing bridge. A bridge extension bumper is mechanically coupled to the bridge extension and dampens contact between the bridge extension and the vehicle. An extension mechanism is mechanically coupled to the bridge extension and the servicing bridge and actuates the bridge extension.
The present invention has several advantages over existing passenger bridges. One advantage of the present invention is that it provides a mechanism for mating a bridge floor to a cabin floor without interference with the strake that is cost effective.
Another advantage of the present invention is that it prevents aircraft damage, including damage to an aircraft fuselage and to the strake, during mating of the servicing bridge to the aircraft.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an additional extension to accommodate for varying size strakes.
The present invention itself, together with further objects and attendant advantages, will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.